Manchester builds its case for Piccadilly Gardens overhaul

So let me get this straight. LDA won initially, then more public money was spent for LDA to win again with a redesign and it’s taken 3 years to come up with a design which is essentially to same as it is now with a few flower beds and the removal of a water feature? Shocking!

Labour council likes to waste public money

This is absolutely brilliant idea. Images are so great

So uninspiring! A facelift at best. I think one of MCC’s biggest mistakes in decades was to sell PUBLIC land (very precious city centre open space) to allow the construction of the One Piccadily office building which is so overbearing. The building itself is equally uninspiring and was supposed to fund the maintenance and upkeep of the Piccadilly Gardens…. how much it failed at this! Without massive amount of money, there is little you can do with this valuable open space, it is just too constrained on all sides. The only proper solution would be to demolish the office building, move the bustops elsewhere and, if I am allowed to dream, put the tram stops underground.

Wow seems like a lot of money for very little gain

How will this design out the massive social issues that this space has?

So…..just keeping it the same? Wow!

Again?!!

It looks nice, but will inevitably last all of 5 minutes because none of the issues have been addressed.

Meh its ok. Certianly not inspirational. Not a huge difference to what we currently have. Still too many hidden corners and litter magnets ideal for the people who frequent the current gardens. However i do apprecaite this is one of the trickiest public spaces in the country to get right.

Absolutely textbook MCC to run a seemingly endless consultation/discussion and then just present what it wants to do anyway.
Extraordinary that their solution is to commercialise even more of the space in the gardens, taking over space for more outdoor seating for the 1PG f&b units, and of all things inserting another “pavilion” (actually another f&b unit) to complement the hated ones in the remains of the Berlin Wall, which absolutely must be kept to avoid upsetting L&G (along with letting their restaurants expand outdoors and their previously-announced plans to fill in the pedestrian access through the building).
Keeping most of the Market Street end as it is, but with shrubberies and extra seating will be really helpful to the drug dealers and ne’r-do-wells, giving them even more shelter than currently, and it really does flag up the oddness of putting a big children’s playground in this spot, particularly when something much better could have been incorporated into any number of nicer spots or new developments.
It really is more of them same – minus fountains – from MCC regardless of all the feedback suggesting otherwise, with their seemingly hardwired inability to ever admit ever getting anything wrong or change course. And it’s difficult to have any confidence in any new MCC/GMP management plan when they’ve never been able to deliver anything better before, and the public realm clearly won’t be much different.

It looks nice, and ANYTHING will be an improvement. But surely the current setup shows that this is the wrong place for grassed areas. The grass never lasts no matter how “hard-wearing” MCC always claim it to be. I really like the cobble-type design, and wish they would just extend this over the proposed grass areas to make a large plaza for events/markets/peaceful protests etc.

Another case of “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Even with this the place is best avoided

I love how they’re trying to strictly limit the scope of the consultation ie we’ve decided internally that there should be a huge lawn and loads of flowers and we’re going to pretend that this is ‘what the people want’ based on some past, non-existent public consultation.

Are my eyes deceiving me? £15M for a space that is c.8250m²? that equates to over £1,800/m²!!!
To do hard and soft landscaping in that area, it should be less than a quarter of that cost. Serious questions should be asked.
In terms of design, an ovoid shaped bit of grass just isn’t cutting the mustard. there should be a direct diagonal walking routes from/to opposite corners at the very least. Then each quarter/segment can be designed appropriately and the area managed much better.

Immediate thoughts before considering the complete waste of money proposals in more depth, where is the manned Police Station, as that is the only way you are going to allow safe access and allow the gardens to benefit the area.

More evidence of the Councils deluded belief that we are a a European city on the same level as, say, Barcelona, Seville etc….you’re having a giraffe.
Blind faith from all the usual sycophants / suspects who have wasted no time posting on LinkedIn…consultants, council officers….you know who you are; we all do.

Good to see proper lighting pylons to illuminate the entire space hopefully. Too many dark areas and uneven lighting scheme. But festoon lighting over footpath? How long before an anti-social native lobs their tied up shoes over them “for a laugh”?

It’s the roughest place in Western Europe, that’s what we need to fix.

Labour doing what Labour do best, completely ignoring what the actual issue are because it doesn’t gel with policy. Here ..let us save you a fortune on management consultancy fees, and endless hours of listening to wittering left wing councillors . Clean it, police it, manage it. £500m spent so far on Albert square and the town hall and you can’t sort this out? There should be a competence bar set for some of our talent free councillors..how people vote for these individuals is beyond me.

Would be good if the tree screening on the east side extended around to Portland Street (lose one of the pavilions). Each proposal seems to become more ‘bitty’ trying to accommodate all needs. Weird how somewhere like London can go ‘Here’s some greenery – enjoy’. Apply the same logic in Manchester and it’s a delinquent magnet.

A police watch tower might be a good idea. The area is blighted by drug dealing, open drug use and aggressive behaviour.

Need a build a new Piccadilly Garden Police Station. It would be perfect for look out of crime in Piccadilly garden keep everyone stay safe which is extremely important 👍🏻

So much money, for so little difference.

Excavate the lot, put the NPR station, tram and bus under ground and then do a proper job on the whole square. not a little pocket of it. Flatten No1 at the same time.

Desire lines!!! That’s all I’m going to say. One of the biggest frustrations with the existing Piccadilly Gardens is that you can’t get straight from Mosley Street to Piccadilly which is a main thoroughfare en route to the station. This STILL isn’t addressed in the new plans! Sort it out Planit and Civic!!!!!

I have commented on this before, after years of stalled redesigns, piecemeal fixes, and persistent social challenges, many Mancunians are understandably fatigued by yet another attempt to “sort out” Piccadilly Gardens. The space has become a byword for unmet promises and ongoing problems, from visible drug activity to entrenched vagrancy leaving the public sceptical that a new masterplan can succeed where so many others have fallen short.

On review the plans are the most credible and grounded proposals in years.
They address real design flaws, respond to public feedback, and align with best practices in urban placemaking.

However, the success of Piccadilly Gardens will depend far more on management, policing, maintenance, and governance than on landscaping.

If the enforcement systems are not robust (and they have not been so), even the best design will struggle.
I travel a lot for both business and pleasure and we are not the only European country to have our civic spaces marred by the challenges outlined above.

Sort the brief out MCC – get rid of the remains of the concrete wall, get rid of the buses – make this into a proper civic square worthy of Manchester – what other leading European city has a bus station in their main civic square??? You’ve got a chance to get this right, step up and make the big decisions necessary.

@bob 17th June at 14.15pm
police watch tower it sound daft lol 😂 it like Jail security watch tower it ain’t Piccadilly garden lol 😂

Somehow, they have managed to make a fairly large open space look claustrophobic

Police patrolling on foot is one of the most effective solutions.

The gardens have been awful and frightening for far to long. Burnham couldn’t make it a safe space for women what hope to be PM
Bring back the sunken gardens and hopefully a small police station with a observation tower timesnew York style it worked on cutting crimethere.

It won’t make an Ugly City centre look Beautiful

So uninspiring. The grass never takes because of the footfall and trampolines – who thought that was a good idea!

Piccadilly Gardens needs a complete ground up rethink. It’s trying to do fulfil six different roles at once and failing at most of them. It’s a major transport hub. It’s an events space. It’s an urban park. It’s retail frontage. It’s a meeting and gathering space. It’s a gateway to the centre of town. Which is it?

As long as it keeps trying to do all those things at once, it’s going to keep failing. The long term solution includes moving the Metrolink underground. The short term solution (which we’ll get) probably involves paving it over.

Have a lot of love for Manchester but this is a saga it has not progressed meaningfully since the mid 2010s. It does not seem a challenge to improve the gardens as they are so poor now. A bit of ambition could see the bus stops sunk slightly with a deck park above, but that would probably take until 2075 to design and build..

Before anything is finalised make Piccadilly Gardens a safe place for law abiding Mancunians, get rid of the low life who congregate daily and intimidate the public including the Tourists who must be amazed we put up the behaviour that is an embarrassment to this once great city.

Looks like an improvement on what is there now.

The thing is if there is a bench or even a low wall in a public place, it will be a magnate for that element who will partake in antisocial behaviour, its just the way it is unfortunately …

Are we supposed to be playing spot the difference?

Looking at the plans it looks to plain
To much path way not enough green
Needs lots of flowers everywhere that will bring more colour and make look beautiful there is a way to look after the flowers with someone watching over them it will be worth it
We need to have something we can be proud of not just a bit of grass here and there this is not what the people of Manchester want again more walkways and a bit of green grass let’s make look like it used to be the most beautiful city centre in the country not just a green walk way

I recently visited Sheffield city centre. Their city gardens knocked spots off Manchester’s. Families out enjoying the pavement fountains in the hot sun, plus covered palm house ,trees and lawned areas. Have a look.

I would welcome the design however, at least put a traditional fountain in… Then you have traditional contrasted by contemporary, a trickle of water is peaceful when you close your eyes and beautiful when you open them. Many thanks, can’t wait.
Ps Do not under any circumstances put that hideous Berlin Wall back!

The original sunken gardens should never have been removed, as it’s been a shambles ever since that happened.

Putting the design itself aside, the bigger question is what happened to the publicly funded international competition. LDA won after a lengthy process and years of work, yet they appear to have vanished from view while Planit suddenly emerges as lead designer. Why invest so much public money in an international competition only to seemingly ignore the winning team’s output? If there is a perfectly reasonable explanation, where is it? How much was spent on the competition and subsequent fees? What procurement route brought in Planit? Was there a framework, a direct award, or something else? From the outside, the process looks murky at best, and taxpayers deserve transparency.

I have gone to the council with the questions raised here and will report back.

June 18, 2026 at 9:16 am

By Julia Hatmaker

It lacks character. It will fail.

They should have left it it’s original form, complete disaster since then.

@ Julia Hatmaker June 18th at 09.16am

Hope you good luck with it 👍🏻

@David Worley Re Sheffield you’ve picked the Peace Gardens and that city has a long history of investing in public realm, but it’s a much smaller city, there are a lot of run down areas needing investment, and have you actually been to Mayfield Park, St Peter’s Square, Albert Square, Saddler’s Yard, St John’s Gardens etc., which are all excellent spaces in Manchester? Picadilly Gardens is uniquely challenging in Manchester for many reasons.

Unfortunately Manchester doesn’t do public realm well.

Pointless. We all know the grass will be trampled over within a matter of days and turn in to mud. Most of the years the site will be cordoned off with metal barricades and look like a dump. This site should be paved over to create a European style square. Its used primarily as the walkin route between Market street, the buss station and the train station. It will be treated as such by the public.

As others have said, this looks like a (very very minor) improvement over the existing situation, but doesn’t address any of the fundamental issues (that the area is extremely busy and trying to fulfil way too many functions, while being really hemmed in) so isn’t worth the price tag.
As a minimum, the lawn needs to go – planters and trees are fine, but grass doesn’t work here as there’s such high footfall and MCC insists on it also being an events space – and the remaining F&B units between it and the tram/bus stops need CPO’ing and demolishing.
Ideally the bus station needs relocating, trams going underground, and One Piccadilly in its entirety demolishing. I’d favour removing Market Street tram stop – the street is simple too narrow for the footfall and there’s other trams stops nearby.

Smaller more intimate spaces would be good. For just sitting on a bench quietly… an oasis amid the noise of Piccadilly? The large areas of grass seem to invite congregation, have no real purpose and will not solve the anti social behaviour issues. Look at Kampus for the kind of quality spaces that could be created with mature planting and trees. We need more shade and water attenuation due to climate change. What about smaller more intimate ‘performance’ potential spaces too. I know budget and brief will have driven a lot of the shortcomings with this design, but the consultation assumes we all agree with the brief that has been set, which we don’t. Or did I miss that consultation?! This city really needs proper green lungs – these are woefully limited as others say, due to land sell off. There used to be a great sunken garden up near the train station. And yes, Mayfield is great (but not publicly owned?) – but can we have this kind of ambition a bit more here please?

No difference to the gardens now?! Where is the police station originally proposed? What about the wider area surrounding the gardens, this needs to be incorporated too as it is all looking very tired. Why have Planit taken over from LDA?

Please can we finally have a cycle free area, ensured with physical barriers. Everywhere in town no pedestrian can relax and be off guard for speeding cyclists. Cycles and scooters are becoming a real threat that can leave people disabled – time they obayed some rules and penalties. No more anarchy on wheels.

The gardens have been obliterated. The new proposal look more like something out of The Wizard of Oz. A nice brick road with neat little paving stones, cute arrangements of flower beds with a few trees planted here and there. It looks sterile and articicial. Should go back to the sunken rose garden of the 80s. This will not work. Piccadilly 1 should be demolished what an eyesore for the city.

The sunken gardens with all those silly flowers did not work. Blighted by anti social behaviour and made moving across the space a nightmare for the thousands of people that use it daily which is why it was removed.

I think the plans are good and address as many problems as possible whilst still keeping it as simple as it should be.
However I completely agree that it will never reach any sort of decent class without the complete removal of One Piccadilly. Honestly someone demolish that horrid building. So many nice buildings which wouldn’t look out of place in a city such as Brussels and surround the gardens are blocked out by that thing.

Grass will be mud in about two minutes. Gardens need gardeners who cost and therefore won’t be employed. Until the ridiculous bus station goes there’ll be no change, and that rather suits the city council who want it all to go away

hurry up

There is little point in spending large capital sums when the main problem is lack of maintenence. Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street are filthy. Pavements are full if grounding dirt. It is not just a litter issue.
In most European countries the streets are immaculately clean and people are employedvtovsweep and operate cleaning machines throughout the day. On a recent visit to Cannes one of the main squares had a cleankng/sweeping cart patrol every 30 minutes and a mechanical cleaner round every hour. The place was immaculate and children and public were enjoying the fountains (not unlike the ones to be ripped out in Manchester) and trees planted in large pots.
I know maintenance comes out of the revenue budget and ‘improvements’ come from capital budgets but employing street cleaners is not expensive and their pride in keeping their sectors clean rubs boff on the general public too.
Why fix something that ain’t broke at great expense if the poor maintenance means it will soon be back to its normal state of dirt and scruffiness?

Look what’s happening in the Northern Quarter now. Design is not the issue.

Demolish Piccadilly 1 and plant lots of trees creating a small wood.